The Cost of the Moon
by gracesnape
Summary: He was attacked by the wolf for the second time in his life. But this time they might be something like friends. Discipline fic, contains non-sexual adult spanking, rated just to be safe. One-Shot.


_This story inspired by "Yes, Sir" by zipple, so read there for the backstory to this interaction; characters obviously not my own._

Severus Snape started as a soft knock sounded on his door. As he rose from his place of contemplation in front of the fire he wondered who could possibly be disturbing him in his rooms, and at this hour. Opening the door revealed the weary form of Remus Lupin, barely recovered from his transformation the night before. A transformation notable for his not taking his dose of Wolfsbane and subsequently attacking the aforementioned Severus Snape, as well as 3 students and Sirius Black.

"Remus."

"Severus."

As the silence stretched between them, Remus took a great breath and asked, "May I come in and speak with you?"

With a grudging nod the other man moved away from the door and returned to his fire, leaving Remus to follow and fall into a wing chair next to him.

"I know you're beyond upset with me. You'd be within your rights to tell everyone of my condition and have me fired. I'm so sorry I neglected my potion and…"

"You're sorry. For the _second_ time in my life I've been attacked by you and you're sorry. You put the lives of at least 5 people in mortal danger and you're sorry. Yes I'm upset! Yes I would dearly love to get you removed from this school so you can't put these students in danger again. But you've done a good job this year, as much as I hate to admit it, and they need your instruction, since decent Defense teachers can't seem to be found. It would be better for you to be gone, yet it is better for you to stay. What do we do with that, hmm?"

Remus sat stunned at such a blatant compliment coming from the normally reserved man. He fully expected him to have already taken this opportunity to spread word of his condition all over the school, forcing his resignation. To hear that his work was approved of was shocking, to say the least.

"Thank you, Severus. That means a lot to me. And I know apologies are weak, but I don't know what else to offer. I do want to continue teaching, and I don't want to lose your friendship either."

An eyebrow raised. "Friendship?"

"Yes friendship. I had thought we'd at least developed something of a friendly rapport this year?"

Severus actually snorted at that; friendly rapport might be stretching a bit the social interactions they had shared, Remus' hand applied to his bottom.

"Call it what you will, _friends_ or no, how am I supposed to justify letting you just walk away from an action of such gross neglect, hmm? Would a_ friend_ let you keep putting others in danger like you do? Certainly Albus has no intentions of calling you on it, does he?"

"Well, he did come and visit me today. It seems he has some end of the year paperwork that I'm to be assigned as penance."

"Ah. I see. Gryffindors taking care of their own again."

"Severus, what should he have done? What can I do to convince you I take this seriously? I don't want to neglect my responsibilities to the students and teachers here any more than you want me to. What punishment do you think I deserve?"

Severus gazed at Remus with a calculating look. "I suppose I could just borrow your brush."

Paling slightly, Remus' eyes flew to meet Severus'. True, he'd made good use of that brush this year, ever since that welcoming feast when Severus had, in his inebriated state, asked him to give him the occasional spanking, to give him release from being in control all the time. The ice between them that had persisted from their school days had thawed somewhat over those months, and no matter what Severus said he at least did consider them friends. 'Faithful are the wounds of a friend,' the wise one said. If this was the cost of his lapse, then, well.

"I suppose you could. Shall I go get it for you?"

Not quite concealing his surprise at such a quick concession, Severus bit his lip and thought it over. "I think you should take yourself to bed; you look dreadful. Perhaps it is my turn to send you a Friday night summons, hmm?"

"Just trying to draw out my agony, eh, Severus? I suppose it is your right. I'll _look forward _to your note." Turning back from his hand on the doorknob, "You really won't tell anyone? You'll let me stay?"

"Like I said, the students need a good teacher. And the teachers would probably miss you too."

Remus gave him a small smile and a nod as he said good night and made his way back to his own rooms.

SSSSSSSSSSS

Never quite relaxing with Severus' threat hanging over his head, Remus made his way to the Great Hall for breakfast a couple of days later. As he took his seat, a school owl winged its way over to him, dropping a letter in his lap. Stomach clenching, he opened it to find the missive he'd been dreading.

_Moony, Report to my quarters at precisely 10:00 this evening for a proper punishment. Remember that underclothes will not be tolerated. BYOB (brush, professor, brush). Sincerely, Serpens._

He couldn't help a slight snort at the last line and the signature. It really was too bad they didn't get along in school. He and Sirius were more alike than either would ever admit. He pocketed the letter and tried to soothe the butterflies taking up residence in his stomach with a cup of tea. 6 classes, 14 hours to go.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSS

The day crawled along for more than just one person, as Fridays are wont to do, but at 5 minutes before 10, a nervous DADA professor was lifting his hand to knock on the Potions professor's door. The door swung open and Remus was met by the image he often cut himself, an imposing professor seated on an armless chair in the middle of the room. Taking a fortifying breath he entered and closed the door quietly behind him.

Severus cocked an eyebrow at him and he flushed, but began shucking his robes and folding them in the corner. With a quick glance behind him he reached into a pocket and extracted a well worn wooden hairbrush. He extended it to his friend, expecting some kind of sarcastic comment as he took it, but to his surprise he just received a beckoning gesture to position himself over Severus' knees. It was time to pay the piper.

As he bent over it was a gentle hand that came to rest on his back, but he knew the other one would not be gentle. This was a real punishment, after all.

"You are never going to neglect your Wolfsbane and put the residents of this school at risk again, are you, professor?"

"No, sir."

The crack of a calloused hand across his backside was the answer, as Remus briefly wondered what happened to the brush. Oh well. He was sure it would show up before long. Years of working with his hands seem to have made Severus' palm plenty hard and painful, as it fell a number of times and Remus' backside got a touch sorer. It seemed that Severus was no more chatty on this end of a spanking than he was on the other as the silence of the room was only filled by regular cracks of palm meeting flesh. The stone walls sure did echo!

As numerous spanks fell, the sting building across his rear end, Remus' thoughts grew less scattered and more focused on why he was here getting his bottom blistered by the man to whom he was usually administering the bottom blistering. As much as it hurt, he started to understand the catharsis Severus sought in this method of letting go of control and paying for his sins. He could have killed Severus and Harry and Ron and Hermoine and Sirius, and who knows who else was out and about on the grounds when he transformed and was out of control. That was a pressure of guilt that transcended even the pain he was experiencing. Ah and it did hurt like a blazing fire on his backside.

Severus paused in his application of solid spanks to the bottom before him and considered the pink shade of the skin. It was stinging nicely, he was sure, and tenderized for what was to come. Right, time to progress. Reaching beside his chair he collected the hairbrush that Remus had so graciously provided him.

Tapping it on the pink bottom, he asked, "Is the wolf tamed yet, professor?"

A small groan answered him. "I assume I'll now be finding out why you always react so nicely to this part?"

A "hmpf" preceded a firm swat with the brush to the underside of Remus' bottom.

A gasp. "Ahhhhh. I see."

The brush had the effect of not just pinkening but deeply reddening the bottom, and as Severus was well aware, had quite the bite on tenderized flesh. He brought it down with some force, catching those spots he knew were very sensitive, almost wincing in sympathy, almost envious of the man over his knee. But he would do this properly. He didn't want to be faced with Lupin the maniacal werewolf anytime ever again.

As his bottom was becoming a uniform red, Remus started to lose the composure he had tried to maintain. His eyes started to water and he wiggled a little, trying to resist the urge to protect the part of him that was being set ablaze. He didn't think he could take much more of this, however much he knew he deserved it.

"Severus, oww. I've learned my lesson, really."

He didn't slow the strokes of that very hard brush, but offered, "Have you, professor? What is that the lesson you've learned? Are you going to remember this beyond the few days when you have a sore backside? You could have killed your best friend's son, his friends, and me. All because you couldn't remember to drink a cup of potion."

He paused and rested his hand on the blazing bottom, waiting to see what Remus would say. A quiet voice, with breath hitching around tears that he was trying to hide, came drifting up to his ears, "I'm sorry, Severus. I'm sorry I almost hurt you twenty years ago, and I'm sorry I nearly killed you again a few days ago. I would never want you or anyone else to be hurt because of me. I will remember this lesson all my days, not just the spanking but how close I came to ruining so many lives of the people I care about."

In the silence following that little speech, Severus slowly lowered the brush to the floor, and let one final crack of his hand sting Remus' fiery bottom before saying quietly, "I know you will my friend."

Remus gingerly got to his feet and wrapped his robes around himself. He took a few deep breaths to steady himself and turned to face Severus.

"You are far too good at that." He quirked a small smile. "Although I suppose you've studied hard on the receiving end."

Severus just picked up the brush from the floor and handed it to him. "You'll be needing this back."

"I'm sure I will." Moving with all the speed of the wolf he reached out and gave Severus two good cracks across the seat of his trousers before moving to the door. "Just to say thank you. See you tomorrow."

With a smile, Remus slipped through the door and made his way slowly and carefully up the stairs to his rooms and the restful sleep of the forgiven.


End file.
